openSolaris 2008 - Overview of the Solaris Printing Architecture - System Administration Guide: Solaris Printing

Overview of the Solaris Printing Architecture

At the core of the print system is a UNIX System V (R4) based spooler. In addition to the spooler are client applications that are used to make requests of and manage the spooler. filters that perform document translation, back-end processing software that performs final document transformation , and device (printer) communication. To utilize the complete functionality of the print system, all these resources are required.

Printing in the Solaris OS consists of the software to support the following:

Print commands
Print spooler
Over-the-wire protocol
Underlying technologies that move a print request from the client to the server, and, or the printer

The following figure is a high level diagram that represents the Solaris print system components.

Graphic of LP client-server relationship, with applications that use the print service. The surrounding text provides details.

Recent changes in Solaris printing include the integration of IPP client-side support, implemented through the PAPI. The Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) and System V (SysV) commands, as well as some applications, are layered on top of the PAPI interface. See Implementation of the Open Standard Print API.